Cherry Street
by Alice 'Italy' Morgans
Summary: It's love and laughter when Jake English moves into the Cherry Street apartments in New York city. With roommates Karkat and Gamzee, and neighbors Dirk and Roxy, Jake might just find himself head over heels for the boy who lives in the floor above him. Can he confess? Or will he end up screwing it all up again? Life of an adult isn't easy, but it is funny. *Windicuffs*
1. Chapter 1

**Hola muffins! I come to you with a new fic! This time a Homestuck fic!**

**Let me just say, yes. This is based around Avenue Q (but it's not a parody)**

**Pairings: windicuffs, dirkxroxy, gamkar**

**more might show up later into the story.**

**i do not own homestuck or these lovely characters. They belong to Andrew Hussie...the lucky bastard.**

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The sun had rose on another morning in the city of New York city. On a small street with an apartment building lining the one side, a door opened and a raven haired boy came out with his garbage. The door next to that one opened at the same time and an older man with bright blond hair and pointy shades came out.

"Good morning, Dirk!" The raven haired boy said happily.

"Hey John." He replied.

"How're you?" John asked with a warm smile.

"Not well." He replied bitterly, walking down the stair steps to the sidewalk. John followed down his own stairs and put the garbage bag in the silver tin.

"Aw, why?" He asked. "It's such a lovely morning!"

"I got fired." Dirk replied with a roll of his orange eyes. "..Again. God, my life sucks."

"Oh I'm so sorry!" John moved over to him and put a comforting hand on the taller's arm. He offered a smile and got a small smile in return.

"Don't worry about it Dirk. My life sucks too. I mean, look at me. I'm three years out of college and I still don't have a teaching job yet. I've got rent to pay and a college loan to pay off."

Dirk opened his mouth to reply, when bickering came from the apartment on the other side of John's. The door swung open and two boys came out, yelling at each other angrily. One was short with fluffy black hair and dark shadows under his red eyes. Following after was a taller male also with black hair and white and grey clown face paint on his face.

"I swear to Jegus, Gamzee! I'm so done!" The one shouted.

"You're so not my mother, Karkat. What does it even matter?"

"It's gross and you should do the damn laundry and not leave it around!"

Gamzee laughed at his reply, causing Karkat to swing at his head angrily, but he simply moved to the side avoiding the hit.

"Hey!" Dirk called to them. The duo turned to face Dirk and John.

"Can you help us settle something?" John asked with a small smile.

"Certainly." Karkat replied, shoving his hands into the pocket of his grey hoodie.

"Which sucks more? Getting fired or not even having a job?" Dirk asked.

"Living with Gamzee!" Karkat shouted, turning on him. The taller laughed and ruffled Karkat's fluff black hair.

"It's not that bad, Kar-bro." Gamzee said with a chuckle. Karkat once again tried to swing at his head, but each swing missed his head and created more laughs and more angry growls. John moved in between them, pushing Karkat away.

"Relax, Kar! Please!" John said, grabbing his shoulders. "You and Gamzee are best friends, remember? Also, this isn't the first time you've gotten angry at him, but you always forgive him. That's what friends do! What did he do this time that was so bad?"

Karkat narrowed his eyes and looked over the raven haired boy's shoulder.

"He left his dirty underwear on the sink."

"Ew." John turned to face Gamzee with a disgusted look. Dirk laughed and walked over, slinging an arm around the clown's shoulders.

The door to Dirk's apartment opened again and a girl with short blonde hair that curled on the one side came hopping down the stairs. A large purple scarf was wrapped around her neck going nicely with her pink skirt and tee shirt with a pink cat on it.

"What's all the ruckus?" She asked. "It's waaay too early in the morning for this. I'm not even drunk yet!"

"Karkat and Gamzee are fighting, I'm taking out the garbage, and Dirk was discussing his recent firing." John replied, picking up the lid to the garbage can and putting it back on the silver tin. Dirk moved away from Gamzee and over to the blonde, wrapping his one arm around her waist. She looked up at him with an irritated face.

"You got fired?" She asked.

"Er.." Dirk looked away, trying to come up with a proper lie. "Roxy, I can explain."

Bickering broke out on the sidewalk as Roxy began to scold Dirk for losing his job and leaving her to scrambling to come up with money for rent, and Karkat was once again spewing curses at his roommate. John looked from one bickering couple to the other, confused on how to stop it. Although fights like these were becoming a commonplace around here.

"Excuse me?" Asked a voice foreign to their own. No one but John had heard it thanks to the arguing.

"Um, hey! Excuse me!" The voice shouted over their fighting. It was enough to make them snap out of it and turn to see the newcomer.

He was in his twenties and was about the same height as Roxy. Just under Dirk's height and taller than John. He had black hair that was combed neatly and square glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose. Two emerald eyes peered out from behind. He wore a white tee with a green skull on it, jeans, and a green jacket over top.

"Can we help you?" Dirk asked.

"Um, I'm looking for a place to live. Are there any openings nearby?" He asked.

"Why would you look here?" Roxy asked, leaning again Dirk. "This place is a dump."

"Well, I started at Apple Avenue and worked my way down, but everything was out of my price range! This place looks a lot cheaper though! Oh, pardon me, I'm Jake English." He said, extending a hand. Dirk moved forward and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet ya, Jake. I'm Dirk, and this is my girlfriend Roxy." He motioned over to the blonde to waved politely.

"And here we have Karkat, Gamzee, and John." Dirk pointed to each of them as he said their name and Jake shook their hand. His emerald eyes met with John's blue ones and they locked, enjoying each other's presence. Then Jake moved back away from John with a warm smile.

"So if you're moving in, you're gonna need the landlord." Karkat noted, crossing his arms over his chest. "Let me get him."

"Oh thank you!" Jake said with a smile. Karkat went over to stairsteps in between Dirk and John's doors that lead downward to another door. He went down the steps and pounded on the door with a fist.

"HEY SOLLUX! GET OUT HERE WE GOT A RENTER!" He shouted. The door swung open and there stood another man probably in his later twenties with short blond hair and glasses. He was dressed in jeans and a mustard colored zip up jacket. He glared at Karkat, then went up the stairs to the group gathered on the sidewalk.

Sollux eyed Jake with curiosity. "Tho, then. You want to rent an apartment? Are you thure you want to?" He asked, narrowing his eyes. The lisp in his voice was strong. The man nodded, his smile not faltering. Sollux then shrugged and reached into his pocket, pulling out a key. He handed it to Jake.

"Here'th your key. Rent thtarths at a hundred per month." He then put his hands in the pockets of his jacket and actually smiled a little at him.

"Golly! Thank you so much!" Jake exclaimed, looking at the key. "You're all so friendly!" He let out an eager laugh and looked around the group.

"I'm so excited!"


	2. Chapter 2

**note: karkat and gamzee are censored only because when I write this, I'm at school and I don't want to like, trip any alarms or nothin'**

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Karkat sat in his armchair with a book sitting in his lap. It was a calm afternoon and for once he had off. He had done some chores around the house, then decided to take a break and catch up on his reading. He didn't read much due to his job and his noisy roommate, but right now was his time and he was going to enjoy it.

His hand let go of the book and grabbed his water bottle, bringing it to his lips. Karkat took a drink of it and swallowed. The cool room temperature water quenched his parched throat. His red eyes then went back to the book in his lap. It was lovely.

The door suddenly burst open and banged against the wall. Gamzee came walking in with his usual smile on his face. He sat down his backpack near the door and took his jacket off placing it the coat rack. Karkat spun around in his seat, feeling his rage boiling inside of him.

"Hey Kar-bro!" Gamzee said coming into the main living room area. Karkat growled and placed his book mark into the middle of his book, then slammed it shut.

"Hi Gams." Karkat replied bitterly.

"Yo Kar, you'll never guess what happened on the subway today." Gamzee took a seat on their couch, putting his feet up on the coffee table.

"Let me guess, it was a damn miracle."

"Nah, nah. This guy was like, getting all mother effin' friendly with me."

"Good for you." Karkat rolled his eyes and picked his book back up, opening it up.

"He was smilin' at me, and talkin' to me."

"Veeerry interesting." Karkat replied, holding the book in front of his face. He reached over to his water bottle and took a drink from it.

"I think he was gay."

Karkat spluttered and shot most of the water back into the bottle, but some went out and onto the carpet. His red eyes dashed up to Gamzee's purple ones in both anger and surprise.

"You can't just draw conclusions like that!" He shouted. Gamzee shrugged. Karkat's face was heating up in both anger and embarrassment.

"Well I don't mother effin' know. Just sayin'."

"So uh, why are you telling me this? Why should I care? I don't care. How was lunch today? Did they have your stupid ass soda there?"

"You don't have to get all defensive-" Gamzee started, tilting his head.

"I'M NOT GETTING DEFENSIVE!" Karkat shouted loudly. The room fell into an awkward silence that only confirmed that he was getting defensive on this topic. Karkat stared blank face straight at Gamzee who stared right back at him. Both of them were silently daring the other to make the first move. Gamzee won the tug of war and Karkat broke the silence.

"Ugh what do I care about some gay guy you met, okay? I'm trying to read." Karkat lifted his book up to his face again.

"Kar-bro, you seem kinda bothered by this? I thought this would be something we could mother effin' talk about?"

"I don't want to have this talk about it Gamzee, this conversation is over."

"Yeah but Kar-"

"OVER!"

He curled up in his chair, hiding his face behind the book. Silence fell into the room as Gamzee looked at Karkat curiously. Karkat let his eyes skim over the words in the book as he tried to read them.

He was too bothered however and was just biding his time until Gamzee gave in and left. The older stood up, stretching his arms above his head with a yawn.

"Well I wouldn't care if you were gay, Kar-bro."

Karkat nearly threw his book in rage.

"I AM NOT GAY!"

"I was just sayin' if you were. I'd still be your bro."

Karkat placed his book on the floor and got up from his arm chair. Smoke was nearly coming out his ears as he glared up at him. He opened his mouth, raising a hand about to scream curses, but he ended up closing his mouth, turning on his heels, and stalking off back to his room.

The door slammed behind him loudly, making Gamzee jump a bit.

Inside his room, Karkat shoved a pillow to his face and screamed into it angrily. He couldn't stand this! Every day Gamzee got new ideas in his head, forcing him closer and closer to falling off the edge.

He could not stand him! Gamzee left his laundry anywhere he pleased without even considering Karkat's existence in the apartment, and he never went for groceries and if did he just came back with soda and pie!

Karkat let out a sigh and let the pillow drop onto the floor with a light thud. His red eyes stared up at his ceiling as he wondered just how much longer he was going to be able to do this.

It seemed like all he did lately was just curse and scream in a one-sided fight. It was like he was fighting with himself and not with Gamzee.

There was a knock on his door. It was light, but loud enough for him to hear.

"Karkat?" Gamzee asked. "Are you okay? You're all huffy."

"Yeah I'm fine." Karkat shouted back, slightly irritated.

"Sorry bro. Didn't know you were a mother effin' homophobe."

"I'm not a- Gamzee.." Karkat rolled off his bed and walked over to the door. He opened it up and looked up at his roommate. His eyes were tired and the rage had faded. Cool purple met blazing red.

"Gams, I'm not a homophobe. I don't care whether two guys or two girls get all romantic with each other, I'm just not a homo okay?"

Karkat's eyes were stern and his face was serious, but there was a slight hint of fear behind those ruby eyes. He didn't want Gamzee to know something. Something very important to him.

"Whatever you say, Kar-bro." Gamzee replied, straightening to full height and shrugging. "What a mother effin' drink? Got some faygo in the fri-"

"No, I do not want your damn soda." Karkat interjected. The topic had been completely averted thanks to that blasted soda of his. The two moved out to the living room again and Karkat returned to reading his book while Gamzee made himself some food.

"So did you hear about that Jake guy?" Karkat asked, trying to spark up some kind of conversation with his roommate. "He unpacked all his stuff today into his apartment. Sollux put him in that shitty one below Egbert's. My guess is he won't last a week."

Gamzee came into the living room with a bowl of mac n' cheese. He sat down on the couch and scooped some out on his spoon.

"We should go welcome him. Bringin' some mighty fine miracles to this neighborhood."

"Miracles?" Karkat asked

"Yeah. This guy might just be what spices up life here."

Karkat stared at Gamzee as if he had a second head. Cherry Street had always been dull and boring with the occasional screaming match here and there. The most entertaining thing that ever happened to them was when the garbage truck came and they played a prank on the driver by dropping mashed potatoes from John's window onto the windshield.

"Have you been eating those weed pies again?"

"Kar they ain't weed."

"Then why are they green and don't you dare say miracles."

The room was silent.


End file.
